


Lifeline

by bbyonion



Series: Broken [2]
Category: IZONE (Band)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:40:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26875339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbyonion/pseuds/bbyonion
Summary: The stranger's eyes made her feel pathetic, but she did not hate it. Hitomi welcomed the feeling more than she acknowledged it in the past.
Relationships: Honda Hitomi/Kim Chaewon (IZONE)
Series: Broken [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960753
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Lifeline

**Author's Note:**

> maybe this has the answer to your query.

"Hitomi is a brave girl."

Hitomi curled into a ball on her single bed that squeaks whenever she shifts her position. The voices outside her door are still there and she listens to every word they say even if she doesn't want to. She tries to divert herself from eavesdropping but there was nothing distracting that she could do. She has no phone or any gadget with her. Not even a single book or newspaper to keep her busy. All that there is in her small room in the shaggy, abandoned apartment is the bed that is as hard as the floor, a worn-out blanket with a couple of holes in the middle and a backpack with only six pairs of old clothing that she has. One of them is for the winter that honestly cannot keep her warm with its already thin material. But she has to make do with it.

She has lost track of time but she guesses that it is almost two years now since she first have gone through with just that.

"She will accept this job." One of the voices spoke again. Hitomi clenches the side of her bed and buries her face on the thin pillow.

“She's not going there!"

A headache was beginning to pound her head due to their noise. All she wanted was a peaceful night to drown in her thoughts until she's knocked out cold and perhaps even dead, but that will never be granted to her now.

"Oh, she will."

"No! You're not going to send her into the Lion's Den!"

"Yes, I am. She's old enough to be there."

"I don't care if she's 27. You're not sending her there!"

There was silence as soon as Hitomi decided to get out of her bed. If she can't get a peaceful night to herself, she might as well face them. She tries her dire best to keep her balance when she stands up. The hours—no, days of nothing but alcohol intake has led her to such unstable state. Her surroundings were spinning around her but she fights the dizziness and drags her feet to the door.

She opens it and finds two girls glaring at each other. Neither was in a better living situation than her but they looked brighter and wore newer clothes compared to her ragged ones. They're enjoying the perks of having adapted to their situation far better than she has.

No. She _refused_ to adapt to it.

"I'll go." Hitomi says and the two shifted their eyes on her. The air in her lungs felt like it got sucked out of her as she said that. One of them looked at her with pity in her eyes. Hitomi recalls her name in her head, Nayoung.

"Hitomi, please. You don't have to." She pleads but Hitomi only shakes her head weakly.

She turns to face the other girl whom she vividly remembers to have saved her from freezing out in the cold on that fateful night. Doah is her name and Hitomi honestly can't remember if she has ever seen her smile. The indifferent girl sighs and hands her a small paper bag. Hitomi reluctantly accepts it and peeks inside. Her head buzzed and her throat ran dry seeing the packets of white powder that she is sure worth more than her entire being.

"Give it to Mr. Song. It's up to him if he'll give you a piece of it."

"Unnie!" Nayoung clearly opposes the idea but Hitomi has already made up her mind.

She needs the money.

And if she's lucky enough tonight, maybe she'll have a gram generously given to her.

She takes a deep breath before asking, "The Lion's Den, right?"

Doah nods. "You know where it is."

"Okay."

Doah immediately leaves without another word and Nayoung takes the chance to convince Hitomi not to go, shaking her lightly on the shoulder.

"Hitomi, you don't have to do this. That place is…" Nayoung trails off as she recalls the experiences she's had after numerous times she's been forced to go there. "I-It's not a place for you, Hitomi."

If Hitomi had spare energy to exude a laugh, she would be cackling out loud already. But she didn't. And she was already close to fainting, so she forces a weak smile instead.

"There is no place in this world for me, Nayoung-ah."

Before Nayoung could reiterate, Hitomi had quickly closed the door on her. With the last of her strength, she pushes herself back to her bed, slumps on it and reaches for the last of the substance she has stashed away for nights when she's being tasked to do something.

With labored breaths and shaking hands, she does the deed and waits until the effect has fully taken over her body.

Hitomi has never felt so alive in that moment.

* * *

**_The Lion's Den._ **

Hitomi is not ignorant of the place and what occurs within its walls. She has heard plenty from the other girls in their apartment. All of their stories ended in the same conclusion: illegal deeds.

Drug dealing, sexual exploitation, weapons smuggling, illegal gambling… You name it. It's all happening inside the Den.

Hitomi never wished to step inside it ever since she got involved with Doah. Though she may have willingly done things illegally in the past, she has always set her limits. Her transactions should never be done within walls or alone.

But the rewards she can get inside the Lion's Den are something she has always reconsidered.

And now, she stands at a corner of its walls waiting for the client to arrive.

Mr. Song is a regular and Hitomi has only met him twice outside the den in other dealings. He's not as rich as anyone else inside the Den but the bonuses he gives are enough to get anyone through until the next transaction.

But according to the other girls, he does give so much more when transactions are done inside the Den.

While waiting for Mr. Song to arrive, Hitomi mindlessly wanders her eyes around the lounge. There are men enjoying the company of the hostesses present. On their tables were piles of money, drugs, and weapons that they all proudly flaunt to threaten others of lower hierarchy from them. The others were dismissed in different rooms available in the den. Those doors are the last thing she has ever thought of entering, next to the jail bars.

She stands in a room full of predators but she was not feeling scared or anything. But maybe it was the substance that ran through her system that made her bold and unafraid to be in the midst of the Lion's Den.

It is never a safe place for anyone, especially for girls like her. And she knew that very well.

But her need for money and more drugs outweighed that thought, thus she waits patiently.

She stood in the dark, ignoring the preying gaze of the men around her. She wishes Mr. Song would arrive soon so she can leave the dreadful place and go back to her cold, hard bed.

A few minutes later, Hitomi spots a lady walking into the den alone. Despite the dim and purple lighting the room has, her pink wavy hair and her pretty face glowed as if a spotlight was on her. Needless to say, she caught everyone's attention. Looking at how she is dressed in a black off-shoulder and carried herself with confidence across the floor even with the predators' eyes following her every move, Hitomi thought that maybe she is one of the VIPs' escorts.

"Lucky bastards." She mutters under her breath while her eyes followed the girls path.

Perhaps it was now the numb feeling her substance gave her or the buzzing in her head that clouded her focus that she failed to notice immediately that the lady was walking towards her. She glances at the lions in the den and sees them all still looking at the lady like she was some delicious meat.

She hears a pair of heels clicking to a stop in front of her and she drags her eyes back to the lady. She was now standing in front of her. She looks at the lady's face in withdrawn amazement. She couldn't fathom how possible it is for someone to look that beautiful.

"Are you Hitomi?" Hitomi nods despite the hazy feeling she's been getting since she left her apartment and the overwhelming feeling she has on the lady's beauty. "Mr. Song has sent me here. He says you have something for him?"

Hitomi was at loss for words and settles again with a nod. She digs into the pocket of her worn-out jacket and takes the drugs out. The pink-haired beauty takes the bag from her gently and carefully checks its content. Hitomi remains staring at her face while she counted.

Hitomi waits…and breathes.

She must have breathed too loud because the lady alarmingly looked back at her when it faltered. But Hitomi could barely make out of the concern on her face.

"You don't look so good right now, Hitomi-ssi." She says and Hitomi stares at nothing particular on her face.

"It is your first time here, right?"

"T-The money." She manages to say without answering the question.

"I'll give it to you outside. You really look like you need some fresh air."

Hitomi does not respond and the pink-haired beauty didn't have to wait for any of it as she suddenly drags her by the arm and out of the Den.

Everything passed in a blur. From the moment the stranger dragged her out of the building until she was asked to stay inside a car, nothing seemed clear to her senses except the fact that she still hasn't received the money.

Hitomi looks out the window in a daze. She sees lot of people in uniforms rushing inside the Lion's Den. Something was happening and she could not understand any of it.

She tries to look for the pink-haired lady from earlier but she was already lost in the crowd. She had last seen her talking to someone near a van and then she was gone.

She shivered in her seat when she sees a lot of women being escorted out of the den. None of them were dressed properly and some barely had any clothing on except for the white sheets being wrapped around them. She lost count on how many there were but the thought that she almost ended up like them made her skin crawl. Not long after, men in handcuffs were being dragged outside.

Her head began to clear and she realizes what was happening.

The Lion's Den is being raided by the authorities.

And she is sitting inside a car possibly owned by one of the officers in the area.

Panic took over her system and all she wanted is to get out. To run away. To escape the authorities like she has always been doing since the day she had ran away from home.

She is sitting inside a car. Alone. And she is not feeling safe. Not when she is surrounded by authorities who'd surely put her behind bars.

Without thinking twice, she pushes the door open and stumbles out of the car in a haste. She had startled a nearby officer on her fall but she didn't mind him. She quickly gets up on her feet and runs as fast as she could away from them.

The buzzing in her head continued but she ignored it. She continues to chant in her head as she pants to get far from the place.

_Run. Don't ever look back._

There were more than her voice chanting inside her head and she listens. Attentively. Obediently.

_Run, Hitomi. Run._

She runs. Despite the aching squeeze on her chest and the cramps in her muscles, she never stops running.

She runs. Against the cold night breeze that felt like needles to her skin, she never stops running.

She runs. Even after stumbling and rolling on the ground for a couple of times, she gets back up and never stops running.

_Run._

She reaches the apartment with bruises and grazes on her face, hands and probably her hip and knees. It ached. Her entire body ached but she didn't cry or even whine about it.

She tries to catch her breath, the air feeling like it has been sucked out of her system. Every forced intake of oxygen felt like toxin to her lungs. It hurt.

The aching in her head pounded like a hammer and she felt nauseated. The world swayed beneath her feet and the walls seemed to crumble in her eyes.

The last thing she sees in blurred figures was Nayoung running towards her.

And then, everything went black.

* * *

"Hitomi is a brave girl."

Hitomi forces her eyes open, slowly but surely. She sees the holed ceiling of her room, a rat's nose peeking for a moment before scurrying away. Her body feels like it weighed a ton more than she could bear.

And the pain… everything still hurt. Especially on the back of her left hand.

She turns her head to the side and sees and IV drip attached to it. She sighs.

_They should have just let me die._

"And she needs rest, Doah. You're not sending her back out there."

There were voices outside her room again and she recognizes both. Doah and Sihyun, a doctor that Doah often calls to mend her wounds and for other medical purposes they need her for.

The doctor wasn't like any of them. She lives a normal life as a practitioner in one of the hospitals in the city. But she didn't treat them any differently and offered her services for free. Hitomi never knew the reason why she does it and she wants to never know about it anymore.

She just wishes she'd leave her to die. To stop undoing her every failed attempt.

"She owes me money."

"No, she doesn't. The den was raided. You know that would happen last night yet you still sent her in there. I told you, didn't I?"

"I needed that money!"

"And so does Hitomi! Doah, you're not the only girl in shambles here. You took her in your care. At least treat her like how you treat yourself with all that filthy money."

Hitomi hears no response from Doah. And the doctor spoke again.

"She's the only girl left for you to do whatever illegal deed it is to have money. Nayoung and the other girls already left and all you still care about is your selfish needs."

Hitomi breathes. Nayoung has left. The last girl who showed has her sympathy finally gave up on her.

A weak smile tugs her lips as the drowsiness takes over her body.

Within seconds, she falls back to sleep again.

* * *

The second time she's woken up, her body felt lighter but still never close to being better. The IV drip was no longer attached to her arm and her stomach felt hollow as it grumbled in hunger. Her throat and mouth felt as dry as the desert. Her eyes dawned on the dark surroundings of her room, slowly feeling its coldness wrap her body.

It didn't feel empty. Someone was there.

“You're awake.” She hears Doah speak by the foot of her bed. Hitomi shifts her gaze and finds her standing there with her arms crossed. She could barely see her face in the dark. She doesn't say anything and stares blankly at the girl.

"Can you move?"

On cue, Hitomi wiggles her fingers and slowly raises her hand until all of her left arm is lifted off the bed. She does the same on the other arm before pushing her upper body up for her to sit. She doesn't nod to Doah's question and only looks at her.

The girl doesn't move from her place and tosses a thick envelope at her. It lands heavily and a little to close to her bruised thigh that made Hitomi flinch and squeeze her eyes shut.

However, when she smells that familiar scent of fresh, crispy bills, her eyes immediately were wide open in shock. Even without counting and just by looking at the few bundles peeking out of the envelope on her lap, she is sure that it was worth more than what she had been getting for a whole year.

"Good. Grab your stuff and get the fuck out of this place."

Hitomi might have whipped her head too fast at Doah that she felt the world spinning again. But she fights it and furrows her brows at her once savior.

"E-Eh?"

"I have no use for you anymore." Doah says cold heartedly and Hitomi's eyes growing wider. "Don't worry. That money's not from me. It's clean. And I'm sure you can survive with it for another year."

"But I don't have a place to go…" Her voice trails off, remembering how she never considered anywhere in the world to be her place. And Doah has caught on to that thought.

"Should you even be worried about that? You said so yourself, there is no place in this world for you."

The words dripped like acid and she felt like her insides were bleeding. She remains seated on her bed, dumbfounded and lost to her own thoughts as the girl walks away from her bed and stops by the door.

"You have until sunrise to vacate this room." Doah says before slamming the door shut, shaking the walls like how reality have struck Hitomi.

She is left on her own _again_.

* * *

The busy streets of Seoul was wide awake before the sun even rose to the horizon. People in their warm layers of clothing to fight the late winter cold began to flood the streets, each on their own fast-paced walking to get ahead of another. Most of them moved with strict plans while the others moved in leisure.

But for Hitomi, she moved like all hope was gone, dragging her feet to nowhere and shivering in her ineffective jacket and worn-out tattered pants. She was just waiting for the cold to completely overwhelm her and maybe lead her to her desired destination.

She stops in front of a convenience store and watches some early bird high school kids sipping on their cup noodles. Her stomach grumbles a little too loud catching their attention. Hitomi shuffles her feet away after one of the boys looked at her with disgust.

She can't stand having anyone look at her like that.

She continues to wander off around the city with an empty stomach and a hazy vision as the sun rose higher behind the threatening, thick, gray clouds. She could no longer tell where she was exactly as she was already too tired to think.

Minutes passed and the skies turned darker. Little by little, droplets of rain fell overhead. Umbrellas popped open left and right while other people rushed to find shelter before it falls harder, but Hitomi remained unbothered as she proceeds to cross the street.

Heavy barrels of rainwater soaked her wholly just as she reached the middle of the street. All of it fell without warning and she took everything in wholeheartedly, stopping in her tracks and waits for an incoming car to run her over.

She looks up to the skies and accepts the piercing droplets of rain on her face, her injuries sting with every drop but she endured it, eventually turning numb after a short while. The clouds seemed to gather exactly where she was standing and she appreciated that. It was as if it agreed to her plans on that moment.

She forces a weak smile on her face when she hears a distant honking of a car's horn.

It is time.

All the pain, the suffering and the nightmares, all of it is finally coming to an end.

As the sound came nearer and louder, she closes her eyes, shutting them tight as she no longer has plans of opening them again.

She focuses on the sounds of the rain on the asphalt road, the loud honk and the screeching of tires.

It's too late to stop now…

She waits.

And waits.

But the bone-breaking impact and death-defining crash never came. It never hit her.

And as much as she hated to open her eyes again, she willed herself to do so and she sees the dark clouds clearing above her. The sun peeks through it and she squints against its blinding ray, spitting curses at it inside her head.

She hears a car door opening then slamming shut. She takes a shallow breath and slowly turns to where the sound came from.

In the same middle of the road, a car was stopped just a couple of inches from her leg. She traces a gaze on it from the hood until its windshield then to the person standing right beside it.

At first glance, she couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl, especially with how their hair was tucked in neatly under a ball cap and their face being covered almost wholly by a face mask. The person's physique was also covered by a comfortable black hoodie and jeans. It took her a struggling peek at the person's eyes before she concluded that it was a girl. Hitomi swears she is wearing the most beautiful eyes ever and she could look at it all day if she wanted to.

But it still wasn't enough to bury her desire to end her suffering.

"P-Please–"

She chokes on the forming lump in her throat, her insides raising acid from its pit. But she slams it down with a gulp and opens her mouth to speak again. With the last of her strength, she mutters the words to the stranger.

"P-Please just let me die…"

Unbeknownst to Hitomi herself, a tear managed to escape from her eye and the stranger saw it glimmer against the light of the day. It moved slow and thorough down Hitomi's face like it weighed light as a feather but actually carried all of her burdens.

As the tear lost its grip off of her cheek, Hitomi fell altogether onto the ground, cold and void of consciousness.

**\\(@'-'@)/**

A huff, a groan and a loud slam of the door startles the sleeping couple on the couch. The older of the two stirs but snuggles further into the crook of the blue-haired younger girl. The latter was the first to open and land her eyes on the intruder and immediately whines.

"Aw, what the fuck, Chaewon unnie?"

"Shut up, Yujin, and help me here." Chaewon groaned as she struggles to carry the girl she had almost ran over earlier.

Yujin gently shakes her gorgeous pink-haired girlfriend off of her and leaves her with a kiss on the cheek before moving to help Chaewon.

"Who is this?" Yujin asks as she moves to carry the unconscious stranger's legs. "Holy shit why is she so light?" Chaewon ignores her and huffs as they start moving towards the bedroom. But Yujin doesn't stop with her questions.

"Where did you even find this girl?"

"God, why is she so beat up?"

"Ommo! Did you do this to her?"

"Do you seriously think I'd beat up a girl?" Chaewon snaps after they successfully laid the girl on her bed.

Yujin nods without wavering. "You beat up Yena unnie before, I don't see why you can't do it now."

"For your factual information, it was Yena who beat me up, not the other way around." She groans. "Look, can you just go wake Minju up? She needs IV fluids."

"You should've taken her to the hospital." Yujin says but still does what she's told.

Chaewon sighs and starts shuffling around her room looking for a towel before rushing to the bathroom to get a basin of water. When she came back, the girl still laid unconscious on the bed and breathed minimally.

Earlier when she suddenly fell in the middle of the road, Chaewon almost thought she was dead already. But the girl's shallow breathing said otherwise thus her decision to take the girl home. Yujin is right though. She should have just brought her immediately to the hospital where the girl could receive better treatment. However, she recognized the look on the girl's face and decided to take matters in her own hands. She is broken…and her eyes did not fail to let Chaewon see it.

And it isn't the hospital that she needs in order to fix the broken pieces. That, Chaewon knows very well.

"Unnie, I think you should change her clothes first…" Minju speaks from behind Chaewon and startles her from her thoughts. She looks at the stranger's clothes and realizes that she is still wearing the rain soaked clothing from when she found her, though it already dried a bit due to her car's AC.

"Right." Chaewon clears her throat. "I should have done that first."

She turns towards her cabinet and looks for decent spare clothes she has. She decides on a matching peach-patterned pajamas that she has only used once over a pullover and joggers. Then she goes back to the bed and begins to change the stranger's clothes. The first time she's touched the girl on the road, she only noticed how weak she was. But now that she's stripping her off of her ragged clothes, her fingers trembled at how frail she felt under her hold. It was as if she was handling a glass and one reckless and forceful move would break her entire being. Her eyes grew wide when she pulled off the shirt and sees the scars and bruises all over her thin, bony body.

For once in her life, Chaewon is handling a girl so gentle. And Minju finds it odd for her to treat a girl, much less a stranger, like that. She shifts her gaze onto the girl who's now dressed clean and she stops.

Chaewon had laid the girl carefully before facing the pink-haired girl. The latter was looking at the stranger in deep thought, forehead scrunched as she thinks deeply.

"What's wrong, Minju?" Chaewon asks.

"She's Hitomi…"

"You know her?"

Minju nods, her eyes not straying from the stranger on the bed. Chaewon watches as her expression softened. "She's the one who escaped Yujin's car. We were supposed to rescue her and now…she's here."

Chaewon briefly recalls the operation from two nights ago that the couple participated as members of the Special Task Force of the National Police. When the two got home in the morning, Minju openly told her everything that happened and how she felt bad for not being able to secure that one girl who ran away while they raided the Lion's Den. Chaewon paid no special attention to the story since she's never been that interested in their jobs. But now, she thinks otherwise.

"Are you going to report this? That you've found her?" Chaewon asks in anticipation for Minju's affirmation. She knows how dedicated the girl is to her job and defying protocols is uncharacteristic of her.

But then again, she's been nothing but a loyal friend to her for years. Even when she had messed up big time, Minju stayed with her. So when the younger shook her head, Chaewon couldn't help but smile.

"You wouldn't let me report it even if I wanted to, so why bother?"

"Thank you, Minju."

Minju reciprocates with a smile before moving closer to the bed to administer the IV fluids for the girl. Chaewon waits until she was done and has left the room before taking the wet towel to wipe the girl off of filth. She carefully damps the cloth around the wounds. Everything looked fresh, especially the ones on her wrists. She pulls her hand open and wipes her hand up to her arm, careful not to scrape an open wound on her knuckles.

“You must have been through a lot…” Chaewon says as she pushes the girl's hair off her forehead and damps the cloth over it. Of course, the girl doesn't respond, but she flinches and her face contorts from time to time as if she's having a bad dream. Chaewon does not let go of her hand when it happens and it works effectively.

Once she was done cleaning her up, Chaewon gives her hand a final squeeze before letting go to discard the used towel and basin of water in the bathroom and go out of her room.

Yujin and Minju were talking discreetly at the kitchen's island counter when she walks in. Both of them looked at her with hints of unasked questions beyond their stares.

Chaewon walked up to the fridge and pitches a glass of cold water. "What is it you want to ask?" She breaks the lingering silence while pouring into her glass.

"We're just curious..." Yujin starts. Chaewon doesn't look at her until she was done drinking. "Where and how did you find her? And why did you bring her here?"

Chaewon places her glass on the counter and sits on the stool across the two. Then, she reaches out for a slice of apple that Yujin had probably prepared earlier when she didn't tail on Minju back in the room. She does it for the latter every morning.

"She was trying to kill herself in the middle of the road. And I almost ran her over if I hadn't gotten my hand brake fixed." The look on Hitomi's face earlier flashed on her mind and her words played like a broken record in memory.

_"Please just let me die…"_

"Was she alone?" Minju asks and Chaewon nods without falter.

"She only had her backpack with her. It's in my car."

"So she left…" Yujin mutters under her breath but Chaewon hears it clearly.

"What do you mean?"

Minju pulled up a suspect profile on her phone and shows it to the confused older girl. Chaewon looks at the picture of a petite, black-haired girl with a dead expression and furrows her brows.

"This is Kim Doah. Someone our department has been trying to track down for almost five years. She's the one responsible for the majority of the human trafficking cases. Most of her victims are girls who looked lost or orphaned and she presents herself to help them. She lures them into a going with her and then feeds them with drug-induced food that changes the way they think about her. The victims follow her orders that mostly involves in illegal drug trade and sexual exploitation then she hoards all the money for herself, leaving the rest untended and only given a portion of the drug sold. No proper food or clothing; just the dreaded substance."

Chaewon rips her eyes off of the girl on the phone screen and looks at Minju. “What's this got to do with her?”

"Doah had been found dead last night in arson at an old apartment building down in Itaewon. There were no other bodies found in the scene and we suspect that she started the fire to erase any trace of her crimes, and of herself."

"It's a dumb move, if you ask me." Yujin butts in which earns her an elbow to the rib courtesy of Minju. "S-Sorry. Please continue."

Minju gives her one more pinch on the side before continuing. "However, she might have forgotten about an important clue crucial to tracing her tracks. We've just received reports from the clearing that they found the important documents of some of the missing girls that she has victimized — these were kept in a safe and survived the fire. One of the owners of the documents is her, Honda Hitomi." Minju pauses. Chaewon doesn't show any emotion and just shifts her gaze at the younger girl, coaxing her to spill more. "She flew here from Japan two years ago and has since been under Doah's control until she probably left her apartment. We still have yet to find the reason why she came to Korea."

Chaewon thinks about the story thoroughly, a fist being clenched tight every time she pictures out what Doah might have done to the poor girl. A lot of questions pop up in every mental analysis she does but her mind always draws her back to one important question.

"What about her family?"

"We're still working on that." Yujin says, biting into an apple. "Though we need to report that we've found her so she'll immediately be taken into custody and undergo rehab until we are done getting in touch with her family or any close relatives we could find."

"But you already know we won't be doing that." Minju interjects, seeing the scrunch on Chaewon's forehead. Yujin looks at her clueless. "We won't?"

Minju shakes her head. "I think it's for the best that we let her stay here for a while."

"But the Chief said—" Minju held Yujin's hand and slowly shakes her head, making Yujin even more confused.

"'I'll make sure she won't be causing any trouble." Chaewon says with a stern look on her face. Yujin still doesn't get it but Minju nods in understanding.

**o(@'-'@)o**

_“You're a brave girl, Honda. You don't fear death.”_

Hitomi's eyes flung open before the scene in her dream could proceed to the part where a gun was about to be fired at her. She had the scenes in that repetitive dream played in her head over and over again as if it was a stored movie in her memory. But unlike the first several times she had dreamed of it, she no longer sweated bullets and her heart did not pound like a hammer on her chest. She was calm, as if finally accepting her demise. Accepting her dream of dying, a dream that has been long deprived from her.

A clicking sound made her turn to her right, a door wide open greeting her sight before somebody walked in with a tray of food.

Hitomi curiously watches the girl move around, settling the tray on the table beside the bed before moving to check the IV fluids above her head. Her gaze traced the tube all the way to the back of her hand.

Ah, so that was what's making her hand feel uncomfortable.

Instinctively, her free hand moves to rip the needle off, never thinking twice about the pain that would cause her. But a hand stopped her even before the tip of her finger could touch it.

"Please don't take it off." The girl pleaded and Hitomi shifts her eyes to look at her face. "I mean at least until the medicine's all consumed."

She was beautiful, ethereal even, that Hitomi almost couldn't put a word to it. Her eyes bore sympathy that did not offend her in any way but neither made her feel safe. A strand of her hair fell off her loose ponytail and Hitomi stares at its color.

Pink.

She opens her mouth to say something but its dryness made it impossible for her to do so. And when she tried, it only brought her pain. 

“I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Kim Minju. And we've already met, Hitomi-chan.” The pink-haired girl speaks in Japanese, her soft voice mildly sending Hitomi into a lull as she withdrew her hand. "It was during our operation at The Lion's Den."

She couldn't describe the feeling of hearing someone speak her language. It had been an identity that she has long forced to forget and take away from her system. But hearing it from the pink-haired beauty, it felt comforting, like home.

"We were supposed to take you with us, to help you, but you ran away."

At the back of her head, Hitomi wanted to say that she didn't need their help. That she was doing perfectly fine on her own. But the growing discomfort in her body won her over, reminding her of how awful the last few months have been to her. Her muscles hurt and her head pounded, she failed to notice that Minju had injected something in her tube.

"This is not what your body is looking for but it will help you feel better." Minju says calmly while wiping the beads of sweat on her forehead. Hitomi flinches at the touch but still focuses on her own sanity, trying her best to stop her body from thrashing on the bed as she feels the liquids enter her veins.

_Just for how long was I asleep for my body to react like this?_ She asks in her head, realizing that the dreaded discomfort is brought by her withdrawals. Although the medicine did help calm her down, her body still ached that she can barely even move a muscle. She groans and clenches the sheets tightly, diverting her attention on her force rather than on the pain.

A light tap on her shoulder made her open her eyes. Minju continued to do so while she looks at her in wonder. The girl smiles at her. "Follow the rhythm and breathe. Just relax." Despite the haziness in her head, Hitomi obeys what she's told and allowed the pain to take over while she focuses on following the tapping of Minju's hand. She breathes and breathes until she feels herself relaxing. "That's it. Keep it going. You'll be okay, Hitomi-chan." 

She hears tune coming from the girl's phone that sounded like an audio recording. Though with the simultaneous struggle with pain and breathing, she listens to the voice singing. It sounded like an angel that, to her, is more soothing and more effective than the medicine given to her. It pleases her more than the substance that her body has been used to.

Instead of the tapping of fingers, she continues to follow rhythm of the song in her breathing until her eyelids felt heavy. She heard Minju say something about the medicine's effect but she was already feeling too sleepy to even comprehend it.

Slowly, like the tapping of Minju's fingers, the lulling pace of the song, and her steady breathing, Hitomi falls back to sleep again.

**(@'-'@)**

Chaewon struggles to get her keys out of her pocket when she's carrying two bags of groceries in her hold and a few other huge paper bags on her arm. She tries to put some of the latter on the floor but she hears a rip from beneath the paper bag of groceries and decides not to move instead until help comes.

IF help does come.

She groans in frustration and leans on the wall. She takes her time to relax for a bit and thinks about her life decisions. On top of her questionable list is her current struggle with everything she's bought.

Groceries and bags of new clothes.

She bets Minju will bombard her with questions for suddenly buying a lot for herself. But the thing is... those aren't for her. And she's already questioned her own self about it. 

"What am I doing..?" She asks herself as she looked down on the bags in her hold.

"You know, I was about to ask you the same thing." She heard somebody say before the full bags of groceries were suddenly taken from her hold and she sees Yujin carrying them effortlessly. "But I already know you're never in the right head space to answer that so never mind."

"Huh, didn't expect you to be here." She scoffs and Yujin rolls her eyes.

"You're welcome. Now if you could please open the door for us."

Chaewon sneers at the taller girl's sarcasm and pushes herself off the wall, fishing the keys from her pocket. She opens the door to their shared unit and Yujin strides inside ahead of her.

"Why'd you buy so much stuff? I thought you never liked shopping?" Yujin asks her after depositing the grocery bags in the kitchen. Chaewon walks past her, settles the bags on the floor and slumps into the couch. Exhaustion wearing her down as she takes a breather. She could barely give a damn about Yujin's sudden panicking when she sits across her on a beanbag. 

"Wait- those aren't for you, are they?" Chaewon doesn't answer and pretends to be sleeping. But Yujin is having none of it and moved to slap her thigh. 

"What the fuck!?"

"Yah! Are you crazy?!" 

"You're the crazy one here! I'm older than you! Don't use _'yah'_ at me! And fuck off, they're just clothes." She snaps but Yujin remains unfazed, looking at her seriously like the very first time they've met each other.

"Chaewon unnie, they're not just clothes. You can't call designer clothing _just clothes_. I know you're just trying to help but you're spending way too much for a stranger."

"What's wrong with that?" Chaewon drops her tone and Yujin veers away back to her own seat.

"Nothing. I mean there's nothing wrong with helping someone. But I just think there should be a limitation to it, you know? Minju will also agree with me on this."

"No. Minju will understand why I'm doing this."

"And you think I don't?" Chaewon stays silent and looks at her without flinching. "I thought we're already done with this talk about me trying to understand your actions. Even in the past, you know I understood your reasons despite of it being pure bullshit."

This time, Chaewon finally reacts. She rolls her eyes, heaves a sigh, and leans her head back.

"Just tell me you still want to kill me for what I did to Jang Wonyoung and go."

A loud thud, a rush of footsteps, and a strong force came after Chaewon within seconds. Yujin is towering over her and have shoved an arm on her neck, pressing her against the couch. Her eyes flared in anger that brought Chaewon back to their first meeting. Except this time, she could feel the restraint from her even without Minju trying to mediate the situation.

"If I am still the Yujin that I was five years ago, you'd already be dead by now." Yujin grits her teeth. "Wonyoung didn't deserve what you did to her."

"I know. You have told me that over and over again."

"Good." Yujin releases her and stands properly just in time for Minju to come out of the room where they kept their guest. "I just hope you really know what you're doing right now. It's only been a month."

"If you're afraid that I'm gonna pull the same shit I did to Wonyoung on Hitomi, feel free to shoot me in the head, officer." 

Chaewon smirks when Yujin doesn't give a response and instead walks over to where Minju is standing and envelopes her in a hug.

"What happened to you two? Were you fighting over Wonyoung again?" Minju shifted her threatening gaze between the two.

"Nah. Just knocked some sense into Chaewon unnie's head for spending too much money on clothes." Yujin answers and snuggles on her girlfriend's neck.

"It's not for me!" Chaewon says too defensively causing Minju to squint her eyes at her.

"Unnie..."

Chaewon ends up spending half an hour explaining to--convincing, rather--the couple why she bought so much. Though Yujin is still skeptical, Minju did not comment any further and she's thankful to her best friend for that. 

However, when the understanding look of Minju was replaced by an earnest one, Chaewon caught herself clinging on the edge of her seat. She knows the girl is going to ask her something she has never been ready to answer.

"You will have to give her up soon. Do you think you can do that?"

**o(@'-'@)o**

Hitomi awoken to the same song that she had fallen in. The first thing she notices once she's shaken off the drowsiness of her consciousness is the lightness of her body. Though her muscles still ached, they were no longer as severe as the previous ones she's had. It also felt like she has woken up from the most peaceful sleep she's ever had for three years. She even had no memory of her nightmare haunting her in her sleep like it always used to.

She wanders her sight around the unfamiliar room. It was a complete opposite to what she's been used to seeing every time she opens her eyes. Sunlight illuminated the room through the window aside from the luminescent lights in the room. The ceiling and walls bore no holes and everything was neatly placed accordingly. Abstract and minimalist paintings on the walls greeted her with delight and she swears she's never seen such rich colors being used before.

The music suddenly stopped and she notices a movement from the side. She turns her head and finds the pink-haired girl smiling at her. _Minju_ , she recalls.

"How are you feeling?" Minju asks again in Japanese. rather than questioning, Hitomi now acknowledges the comfort and familiarity the language brought her. She tries to speak out but something felt like it was blocking her throat. Minju perhaps noticed her struggle and asks again, "Feeling better?"

Hitomi nods. She wanted to ask for water but she withdraws from the thought when the door suddenly opened and another girl walks in. 

Hitomi stares at her entire figure for a few seconds leading her gaze to the girl's own just above her face mask. Their eyes met and she remembers how weak she had always been feeling and how helpless she was standing in the middle of the road, soaked in the rain and waiting for something to run her over. She remembers her vividly before she lost consciousness.

The stranger's eyes made her feel pathetic, but she did not hate it. Hitomi welcomed the feeling more than she acknowledged it in the past. She catches her breath when the girl pulled her mask down and revealed another pretty face.

Hitomi thinks she's surrounded by angels.

“Minju, Yujin said you have to go.” The girl says this without breaking eye-contact with Hitomi. She in turn doesn't break from it either.

Minju walks away from her bed and stops by the other girl to whisper something. The latter only nods before they were finally left alone in the room. Hitomi watches and waits as she stepped forward and moved to the side of the bed. When the stranger reached out an arm to touch her forehead, her body did not even flinch like it used to when other people touch her, instead it relaxed under the warmth of her palm.

The girl moved in silence while she carefully removed the tapes and retracted the needle from the back of Hitomi's hand and the latter couldn't help but sigh at the relief.

"Does it feel better?" The girl asked and Hitomi looks at her, nodding. A smile broke out from the girl's stiff expression and Hitomi feels the warmth spreading from her insides.

There is something about her that Hitomi can't specifically put a word on. Her presence radiates a different sense of comfort than Minju does, that she is sure of. And her voice... it's familiar, soft, and brings her to a state of euphoria that her drugs could never match with. She thinks she could live forever just by listening to it.

"Can you get up?"

Hitomi dismisses from her trance and nods eagerly at the girl. She even began moving on her own, though slowly through the pain. But that was okay as the stranger helped her to sit up. She is feeling nauseated but it is better than the buzzing in her head that she always experienced in the past after a long duration of being bedridden.

The girl brings a glass of water to her lips and Hitomi chugs on it like there was no tomorrow. It was the first time she has felt so thirsty and she wanted more. The girl noticed it and pitched another glass which she consumed in seconds.

"I think that's enough. You need to eat first." The girl said and held her arm down when she reached for the pitcher herself. Her stomach grumbled so she nods.

The tray of food was settled before her and Hitomi feels her mouth watering immediately. "Eat as much as you want." She was told and so she did.

She finished the meal after devouring two and a half servings of rice. All the dishes were licked clean and Hitomi had never felt so satisfied in her entire life.

That _has_ got to be her best meal ever.

With her stomach being so full, a scandalous barf broke out from her mouth and she quickly covered it with a hand. Embarrassment washed over her especially since the girl is still there looking at her.

"It's all right. We've all been there." She says and Hitomi flushes, ducking her face behind her overgrown fringe.

"I'm Chaewon." The girl says and Hitomi stops. She tries to mutter the name under her breath. "We met in the middle of the road when you were..." The voice trailed off as if she doesn't want to remind Hitomi of that day. 

Hitomi slowly raises her head and looks at her _savior_. "I know... I... I r-remember you." 

Her confession seemed to surprise the girl for a moment before a warm sweet smile manifested on her small face. "I didn't think you'd still remember me after being unconscious for more than a month."

"A month?" Hitomi blinks and gives Chaewon an incredulous look. 

"Doctor Kim Minju's decision. She said you had to be put to sleep to help deal with your addiction or something. I don't know really." Chaewon explains nonchalantly and Hitomi just nods slowly. So that's why her body was reacting that way.

"So she's a doctor..." 

"Doctor and a cop actually." Chaewon shrugs. “Anyways, Minju said I should take you out for a walk, breathe the fresh spring air or something. Do you want to freshen up first before anything?”

Hitomi gave herself a few subtle sniffs before nodding at the girl. She does _smell_ like she needs a bath. 

She is then helped out of the bed. Her legs felt wobbly when she got to her feet and she felt the world underneath her tilt for a short while. But with the support and gentle hold she was given, she is able to regain her balance and starts to take minimal steps towards the bathroom.

"You can use everything in here. They're all yours." Chaewon says as Hitomi wanders her sight around the adequate space, spotting a brand new toothbrush and toothpaste by the sink. "You can take your time. I'll be right outside if you need help with anything." Hitomi just nods her head before stepping away from the girl's hold. She waited for the footsteps to be gone and the closing of the door before stripping out of her clothes and indulging herself under a relaxing warm shower.

The wounds that she last remembered to have existed no longer stung when the water ran over them. Though some of it still brings an itchy sensation under her skin, none of it made her feel like a slave anymore. For the first time in years whenever she's taking a shower, she no longer felt the nonexistent chains holding her down. The threats that await her after every time she steps out of the bathroom are, for once–and maybe forever–now out of the equation.

She took her time under the water, thoroughly cleansing her body with the soap and allowing herself to savor the calming crispy scent of the shampoo provided.

Mint.

She stops what she was doing and stares at the shampoo bottle in front of her. At the back of her mind, a distant memory of the past played like it was just yesterday. The minty scent brought her back to her old home, specifically in her older sister's room where it had always smelled the same crisp.

_"Hii-chan! Come here. I have something to show you."_

She remembers the glimmer in Nako's eyes and the pitch of her voice bouncing the same way she was doing on her bed, papers and a laptop scattered before her. She remembers what was about to be shown to her: acceptance letters from different prestigious schools abroad that her sister had applied for her Masters' Degree. She remembers how much she despised the idea of them getting separated but Nako already made up her mind, and she was adamant about it. Exactly two days after that, Hitomi remembers going out of the house instead of spending the remaining hours with her sister, refusing to look at the papers and the luggage already packed and ready, and the pure bliss and excitement written all over Nako's face was something she couldn't stand without breaking. She remembers coming home a couple of minutes before it was time for Nako to leave. She remembers the dull atmosphere she never expected to sense when she reached their gate. She remembers the front door left ajar. She remembers her mom's favorite flower vase broken and scattered on the floor and her dad's valuable frames of honorary certificates shattered likewise along the walls. She remembers the broken and messed up furniture as if they were passed by a hurricane. She remembers tiptoeing over broken debris until she reached her sister's room. She remembers the chills and the way she broke down when she opened the door. She remembers... witnessing three bodies on the floor and left in a pool of their bloods.

**o(@'-'@)/**

Chaewon waited patiently, acknowledging the fact that it would take the girl some time to finish her rituals in the bathroom. It is evident by the loud gushing of water from the shower. But when she glanced at the digital clock and it read five minutes before exactly an hour since she left her in the bathroom, worry immediately washed over her and she sprang up from the bed in an instant. Her feet shuffled fast towards the bathroom door and she knocked.

"Hello? Hitomi? Are you alright in there?"

No answer. But the water can still be heard hitting the tiled floor.

"I'm sorry but I'm coming in, okay?"

She counts to five before twisting the knob. The door swings open and her eyes immediately fell on the girl who's hugging her knees on the floor, a bathrobe draped loosely around her body while her face was buried on her kneecaps.

After turning the shower off, she rushed to Hitomi's side. The girl was shaking and Chaewon knew it wasn't because of the cold.

"Hitomi?" She softly called, cautious of the loudness of her voice that may break the girl even more. She scooted closer and slowly placed a hand on her knee. Hitomi jolted at the contact and looked up at her. Her eyes were puffed and red and traces of tears dampened her cheeks.

The question that Chaewon wanted to ask remains stuck in her throat as, suddenly, Hitomi launched herself at her. She stumbled back and her arms quickly anchored on the cold tiles behind her just to prevent herself from falling completely flat on the floor. The contact immediately registered in her head as she felt the girl's exposed front entirely pressed on to her body. Her cheeks flushed at that, but the arms wrapped tightly around her neck and the vibrations from Hitomi's sobbing cleansed her thoughts from anything inappropriate and she raised a hand to soothe the girl's back.

"I'm here. I'm here. You're okay, Hitomi-ssi. You're okay." Chaewon repeated the words over and over again like a mantra to calm down Hitomi. And like magic itself, it worked almost instantly—she timed it to be just around five seconds before Hitomi completely relaxed and another ten for her to start moving.

Chaewon waits, silently listening to the girl's discreet sniffles while her arms loosened from their hold around her neck. Slowly Hitomi pulled away, head still low, hands and wrists wiping messily across her face and never minding how open her front was to the other girl. Chaewon, with a blush creeping again on her neck and to her face, had to look away as she reached for the loose robe and pulled the edges together to cover her up. It made Hitomi stop and look at her. There were words waiting to be said but it seemed as though that she couldn't find the courage to say it.

"It's all right." Chaewon smiles and Hitomi shrinks her head back into her shoulders.

With sufficient precaution to Hitomi's physical and psychological state, Chaewon carefully pulls her up from the floor and leads her out of the bathroom. Thankfully, Hitomi was obedient enough to heed her plea to move somewhere less cold and not wet.

Hitomi is seated on the bed while Chaewon dries her damp hair with a towel. Neither of them talked and allowed a few of Hitomi's still ongoing sniffles to be the only sounds between them. Although Chaewon is having urges to ask about the girl's story, she held her tongue and waited until Hitomi would decide on it herself.

The silence, however, does not stay for too long as Hitomi suddenly tugged hard on the hem of her shirt, startling Chaewon from what she was doing. She looked down, past the towel and eyed Hitomi curiously.

"What is it?"

The mental count reached six before Hitomi spoke.

“Why are you being kind to me?”

The question dug through her skin and into her nerves, sending a jolt to her body from the tips of her fingers. Hitomi's eyes were void of any emotion but she could see how confused she is.

"You could have just left out me there to die."

Chaewon barely heard her say it but it was enough to wake her system and answer the question.

"I just didn't want to commit the same mistake again."

Hitomi nods and bends her head down. Her hands fiddled with each other while Chaewon let the towel hang loosely on her shoulders as she released them and takes a seat beside the girl.

"This whole thing must seem absurd to you, doesn't it?" She tries to pitch in a playful tone in her words but Hitomi wasn't responsive to it, so she feigns a cough instead. "I'm merely a stranger who had almost run you over but I couldn't just leave you there to die. Not when I know I can help you."

"I don't need your help." Hitomi snaps but doesn't look at her. It is an odd shift in her behavior compared to earlier. But Chaewon already knew that. Minju had warned her about these things when Hitomi gains consciousness.

"That's what she told me and I ended up losing her entirely." Chaewon says casually and leans back on her arms on the bed. The revelation is enough to make Hitomi snap out of her own thought bubble. She noticed how the girl's back straightened up and her shoulders stiffened. "She was just twenty when I broke her because I was an asshole of a person to begin with." She looks up to the ceiling and breathes, trying to dissipate the lump forming in her throat. "Took me years to get over it and I thought I could start redeeming myself through helping someone who's in the similar situation as she was."

"And... how sure were you that I am in the same situation..?"

"Because you looked at me the same way she did on that stormy night and even said the exact same words."

"But I–" Hitomi cuts herself as if she realized something. The silence lingered for a lengthy while the girl bends her head back down. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble." Hitomi says in a small voice but enough to reach her.

"Don't apologize. It was my decision to help you." Chaewon shifts on her side and leans forward to peek at her face. Hitomi only looked at her from the corner of her eyes. "I hope you're okay with this. It was rude of me to decide on that without your consent so now I just want to know if you really want–"

"Yes."

It startled her to see how quick the girl was to respond. She thought Hitomi would react negatively like how she did earlier. But her eyes told Chaewon that she is indeed okay with the help she's receiving. The turn of events brings a smile to her face.

"Okay then." Chaewon stands and holds a hand out to her. "Come on. Let's get you some clothes to change into."

Chaewon allowed her to choose the clothes she wants to wear. She thought it would just be from a selection of spare clothing that the girl owns, but to her surprise, she is presented by a whole closet of brand new clothes. And for someone who had always been fond of fashion before her life turned a hundred eighty degrees, it baffles her to see how expensive most of the clothes are.

"They're all yours." Chaewon says as Hitomi wanders her eyes to each and every piece being hang and folded. She looks at each clothing carefully, allowing their visual quality to fill her senses like they did before. At the back of her mind, a buried memory is also tempting to flash before her again. A moment later, she's drawn back again to her room with Nako. The same clothes laid on the floor but stained with her sister's blood. She rips her eyes from them quickly and turns to the other girl.

"I-I'm sorry. I can't accept this." She tries so hard not to let her voice crack and gulps the lump in her throat down hard.

Chaewon watches her for a little while, observing until her lips pursed. "Is there something wrong?"

She avoids her gaze and whispers, "N-No. I just think it's too much..." 

She hears Chaewon hum but the girl doesn't say anything. Instead she steps forward and pulls a drawer open. Hitomi peeks inside it and sees a couple of other clothes. Ones that are not branded and wouldn't cost a fortune.

"Are you fine with these?" Chaewon asks, looking back at her and she nods.

The girl gave her a tight-lipped smile before stepping aside, allowing her to take liberty in choosing. She steps forward and picks a white-colored pixel flower-patterned dress from the pile. Her fingers traced along the lines of the dress, feeling the soft material under her touch. Now this wouldn't trigger her nightmares.

"Thank you." She says, lifting her head.

"You're welcome." Chaewon replies and Hitomi swears she might have seen her beautiful eyes glimmer brighter for a moment. "I'll leave you for a bit so you can change. I'll wait for you outside."

"Okay."

**v(@'-'@)v**

Chaewon has never felt so nervous her entire life! 

She thinks back to her twenty-eight years of living and realizes that she has never felt such intensity of any feeling before.

Even when Minju had told her about the consequences of her actions and scolded her, she didn't. Even when Yujin almost choked her to death, she didn't. Even when she stood in front of Mr. Jang's wrath and Mrs. Jang's cries, she didn't. 

Even when she stood in front of Wonyoung's grave, she didn't.

Even when she was detained, she didn't.

But now, she just cant seem to keep herself composed while she walks alongside Hitomi to a nearby park. She glances at the girl who's been keeping her head down since they've gotten out of the unit. The late April sunshine kissing a breathtaking part of the girl's profile, Chaewon thinks she might have forgotten how to breathe. Since Hitomi revealed herself wearing the sundress and even fixed herself up, Chaewon just found herself at loss for words and her insides panicking like crazy. 

She is too preoccupied in distracting herself from staring at the girl the entire time that she fails to notice that they have arrived at the park and Hitomi has stopped right in front of the lake. She was already steps ahead of the girl when she notices she's been walking alone. She looks back and finds her still looking over the vast lake, the sun just illuminating her face perfectly.

Hitomi stood there without care for the other people passing by and Chaewon remains her distance, settling on the sight of the girl. Her nervousness has gone away and she looks at her in wonder for the tears that she shed earlier and the question she asked her.

_Were_ _they still occupying her mind?_

Suddenly, a group of rowdy teenagers passed by and one of them bumped into the girl. Hitomi stumbled forward and to her knees. Chaewon's vision darkened and she marched the distance between them. The boy who bumped into Hitomi had halted to check on her but Chaewon grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him away, causing him to fall back on his bottom. It seemed like she has triggered his friends but that is none of her concerns as she rushes to check on Hitomi who hasn't moved in her place. 

"Hitomi, hey, are you okay?" She asks, lightly shaking the girl by her shoulder. "Hitomi?"

_"_ _Blood_ _..."_

Chaewon's brows furrow at the Japanese word muttered by Hitomi. "What?"

_"There is blood on the ground..."_ Hitomi says yet again in Japanese.

"I can't understand you. What are you saying?"

"N-Noona..." The boy suddenly spoke and Chaewon glares at him almost instantly. "She s-said there's blood on the ground." Then his eyes trailed to the ground beneath Hitomi. "H-Her knee is bleeding..."

Chaewon quickly shifts her attention to Hitomi and checks on her knee. Indeed, it is bleeding more than a normal fall would cause. Blood immediately rises to her head, pissed off by what the boy had done.

"I-I'm sorry. I d-didn't mean to-"

Before her anger could take over her sanity, Chaewon focuses her attention on Hitomi and carries her on her back. She gave the kid one last glare before running towards a nearby hospital. While on their way, Hitomi doesn't stop muttering the same word.

_"Blood..."_

**v(@'-'@)v**

The sight of blood made Hitomi forget about the beautiful outdoor scenery of the park and remember the darkest nightmare of her life. It brought her back to her old home again, in the presence of her parents and older sister's gored bodies. Even when she has been cleaned off the blood on her knee and has been moved to a private room, she continues to tremble at her hallucination of the blood. 

"Hitomi..." She hears someone call her but she couldn't rip her eyes off the blood she's seeing on her hands. It mocked her like the way the killer did to her three years ago.

_"Come here, Honda. I know you are a brave girl. Come, and finish what I've started."_

_The man handed her a gun and urged her to use it against her own sister who was barely breathing and looking at her with wide eyes. The look of terror was all over Nako's face and Hitomi didn't like seeing it so she shut her eyes as she accepted the weapon._

_"Now that's a good girl. Aim and shoot, Honda. Don't you dare miss." The man continued with his orders that made Hitomi's stomach twist and churn. She wanted to puke but she couldn't. "We don't have all day, Honda. Do it."_

_Hitomi's head began to buzz, her rationality slowly detaching from her sanity. She could still hear the man's voice beside her, his hand lingering close to her back and her arm. The beating of her heart thumped faster and louder with each passing second until she could no longer hear anything else but her own pulse. At the very last time she remembered taking a deep breath, she was still aware of what was happening. But what happened next passed like a bullet in front of her._

_Literally._

_The next thing she knew, her hands were already trembling, the gun clattered against the floor close to another body with a bloodied hole in the middle of his chest. She looked at the new victim's face and she realizes, she has killed the killer._

She remembers that she has also killed someone and it haunted her from the day she scrambled to pack her stuff and run away before the authorities could get to their home. With enough money and documents to get out of the country, she flew to Korea in hopes of finding refuge in a new place and start a new life, clean and untainted with blood. 

But she only found herself in a much more twisted situation.

A sudden feeling of warmth envelopes her and her mind instantly snaps out of her reverie. She feels the arms around her and notices a familiar minty scent from when Chaewon carried her on her back. 

It was only then that it hit her. 

"W-What are you..?" She is baffled to have the girl hugging her out of nowhere.

"You can still cry if you want to. I won't judge." Chaewon says and Hitomi feels a lump forming in her throat. However, she still tried to deny it.

"But I'm not-"

"You're still trembling." The girl cuts her off and tightens her hold of her. "You don't have to fight the tears, Hitomi."

And like a faucet, her tears began to fall and she cries the hardest that she's ever done. Earlier when she was crying in the bathroom, she was only crying for losing her sister. But this time, she cries for reasons she has forced to ignore for the past years. She cries for the memories that she's wasted for choosing to ignore her sister. She cries for the times that she's failed to show her parents how much she loves them. She cries for the days she's spent alone after running away and never returning home to pay her respects. She cries for the instances that she's decided to end her life. She cries for the people she's cut off all because she felt broken. She cries for everything she's ever done that gave benefit to no one.

She cries, and cries, and cries. Until there was no more tears left for her to squeeze out. 

Chaewon was patient enough to stay with her until she's decided to fix herself. The girl slowly releases her to reach for the glass of water beside the bed and helps her to drink. She accepts it and chugs it down in no time.

"Feel any better?" Chaewon asks, a ghost of a smile waiting on for her answer. And when she nodded, it appeared like a rainbow on a bright sunny day after a morning of nothing but dark stormy clouds.

Hitomi looks at her in wonder. Chaewon's kindness is beyond anything she has hoped for. And all the while she looks at her stretched lips, she thinks she doesn't deserve the it and she wants her to stop.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Chaewon asks.

"You have to stop doing this."

Her answer didn't seem to falter her smile. "Stop doing what?"

"This. You, being kind to me and helping me."

Now, Chaewon's smile has vanished. It's what Hitomi wanted, but why is she feeling guilty for getting rid of it? 

"Give me one good reason why I should stop." Gone is the girl's warm demeanor and she looks at her cold. 

Hitomi thought hard but nothing came into mind. All that is in her head is the realization that someone, a mere stranger, is still willing to help her and continues to be kind to her. It is not the first time it has happened. Doah had done it before. What makes it different this time is that she was treated differently the moment she woke up.

Doah, for lack of a better word, was awful to her. She might have saved her from freezing to death on that night but after that, she didn't even pretend to be a good friend and just brought her to an old apartment, gave her a rat-infested room and was fed with a single bowl of soup. It was drug-induced and it only took her sip to notice right away. However, a knife threatened to cut her throat when she didn't want to take it. And after she did, and at the struck of midnight, she was forcibly sent out for a transaction, one that she couldn't say no if she wanted to survive longer. Stoned and barely breathing, she did what was told. It was a horrible experience for her. A scarring memory engraved deep in her being for almost two years.

But with Chaewon, it was different. She hasn't known the girl that long but she knows she is way better than Doah was. Call her crazy, gullible, or stupid, but she knows a genuine person when she sees one, much more when she's sober and in her right mind. And for Chaewon to risk taking in a mere stranger from the street into her home? It already speaks volumes to Hitomi. No one could easily do that these days, especially when you look ragged and beat up. She knows because she had tried once when she got out of Doah's sight. And even if she looked decent like the first time she landed in the foreign country, no one would still dare to help someone like her.

And now that Chaewon is asking for reasons on why she should stop, Hitomi blanks out. The pros outweighed the cons in her head no matter how many times she tries to think it over.

When she finally gives up on searching for reasons in her clouded thoughts, she avoids the girl's gaze and bends her head down. "I'm sorry." She mutters in barely a whisper. "I don't think I'm in my right mind right now. You were right, everything does seem absurd to me. None of these made sense to me when I woke up, and until now, I still don't understand why... why someone like you would still continue being kind to me. You... you don't even know who I am."

"You don't even know who I am either and yet you still trusted me." Chaewon reiterates and she raises her head to look back at her. "What you did this morning, in the bathroom, you entrusted yourself to me, did you not?"

Hitomi pauses and tries to remember what happened earlier in the day. She cried, Chaewon found her, and she threw herself at her. A blush crept up her face upon realizing how embarrassing it was of her to do that. The girl chuckles and holds her hand, catching Hitomi off guard. She stares in wonder at the physical contact, feeling the warm palms of Chaewon's hand.

"I really just want to help you even if you find my intentions suspicious. But I promise you, I won't do anything to hurt you. And if I do commit such stupid mistake, you'd be sure as hell that I'll surrender myself to Minju and ask her to put me behind bars before anyone can call the cops. That's my pledge." Chaewon gives her hand a tight squeeze before letting go. She said something about going out to buy dinner but Hitomi was too distracted in her thoughts to even mind it.

Her gaze shifts to the door where Chaewon had gone out then back to her hand that was held. She could still feel the warmth from the girl's palm like it's still there holding her. Something stirred up inside her while Chaewon gave her pledge and for the first time in years since she refused to acknowledge its existence in her body, she listens to what her heart is telling her.

**o(@'-'@)o**

It's been two weeks since Chaewon brought Hitomi to the hospital for her injuries and the doctor--Chaewon's common friend with Yujin--insisted that the girl be admitted for some tests. 

"Oh! So you come here bringing an injured alien who has no records whatsoever and now you're begging me to tell you about her condition? Who the hell do you think you are?" Dr. Kwon sneers at Chaewon, taking a brief pause from what she is writing on her notepad. It's been days since she started asking but still nobody would tell her anything about the results of the tests Hitomi had undergone.

And so, she insisted on talking to the doctor in her office.

On the bright side of her frustrations, however, is that Hitomi has softened up to her. Ever since the girl's breakdown, they have always been talking to each other. They talk all day about anything under the sun and she often sings her to sleep. Hitomi is no longer having nightmares too and her withdrawals have subsided gradually as the days passed. But even so, she is careful not to bring up any of her traumatic past. And she will wait patiently until the time Hitomi is ready to talk to her about it.

"Eunbi, please, I need to know what's happening to her."

"Not happening. You're not related to her."

"I'm acting as her guardian!"

"Say's who? You?" The doctor releases the pen and leans back in her swivel chair. "She has a sister living in the city. Minju said you already know that info. Do me a favor instead and call her, and tell her about what happened to her sister all these years."

Of course. Minju must have told the doctor when Yujin and her went out for dinner with Eunbi and her wife last night. It was two and a half weeks into investigating when Yujin's department was able to find Hitomi's family---or the remainder of her family. An older sister. The only one who wasn't in Japan when the rest of her family was massacred in their own home. Minju had also asked her to do the same but Chaewon refused, and until now, she refuses still.

"Unnie..."

"I'm not Minju and you're most certainly not my wife. That's not going to work on me." Eunbi picks up her pen and starts writing again. "Call her or I'll do it myself and we'll see who'll end up in crutches again."

**v(@'-'@)v**

Hitomi turns her head to the door when she heard it open. She sees Chaeown walk in smiling at her and she smiles back. Weeks ago, she was conflicted on the kindness that the girl has showed her, even reaching to the point that she asked her to stop. But she realized that it's not actually awful to have someone genuinely care for you, even if you are strangers to each other. Since then, she's been nothing but feeling grateful to Chaewon instead of questioning her ways.

The girl walks over to her side and sits beside her on the bed, peeking at the bandages on her knee.

"Does it still hurt?" Chaewon asks. The stern features of her face softened as she drags her gaze back to her. Hitomi only shakes her head. "The doctor said you still have to stay here for a couple more tests."

Ah. She's already figured that out after the doctor asked her questions earlier. "I know."

Chaewon nods and drops her gaze. Hitomi finds it odd and tilts her head in curiosity. "Did she say anything else?"

"She did. But it's not that important."

She examines the way Chaewon is dazing out in front of her and thinks that she must have a lot of thoughts going inside her head like her but couldn't tell anyone. She figures she should lend her an ear in exchange for her kindness.

"You know you can tell me anything."

"It's not about me."

"Oh..." She holds her breath. "Is it about my addiction?"

Chaewon lifts her head and shakes it. Now she's looking at her. "No, not really. But about that, she said your body is responding well to the treatment. You're still going to undergo therapy though. But that's only if you want to. No one's gonna force you to do it until you're re--"

"But you want me to, right?" She catches Chaewon off guard with her question and the girl stops. She stares at her dumbfounded for a couple of seconds before shying away.

"I just want what's best for you. At least, it's what I think it is."

"Then, I'll do it." She smiles as Chaewon looks at her in wide eyes. "A week ago, I wouldn't have wanted to do it. But now, I figured that it would really be a waste to just give up on living all because it happened to me. And besides, I want to hear more stories from you."

  
Hitomi is surprised when Chaewon suddenly pulls her into a hug. She found it awkward and wanted to free herself, but the girl tightens her grip around her and she allows herself to settle into its comfort.

  
"Thank you, Hitoma." Hitomi blushes at the nickname she had gotten from her days ago. It was a slip of the tongue and the girl has been calling her with it whenever she can since then. She never liked nicknames given to her but for it to come from Chaewon, she just didn't feel negative about it at all. Instead, it made her happy.

  
"Why are you thanking me?" She asks and Chaewon pulls away.

"Because you're choosing to live again."

  
"It's not a big deal." She shrugs. "Besides, I should be the one thanking you for helping me."

After all, it's not the medicines that made her better.

It is Chaewon.

**O(@'-'@)O**

People have told Chaewon that what she did to Jang Wonyoung would haunt her for all her life, and she believed them. She listened to everything they've said and almost ended in the same fate. If it weren't for her best friend Minju and Yujin, who was forced to stick with her girlfriend's decision, she would have already been buried six feet underground three years ago. She found people to help her continue living but not a purpose to keep such decision without anyone's help.

Not until she almost ran over a helpless, ragged-looking girl in the middle of the road.

When she found her, her body moved before her mind could process anything. It was only when she had parked her car in the garage that she realized what she had done. The unconscious girl slept soundly in the passenger seat and the sight of her face just melted Chaewon's walls.

The girl was a terrible wreck and a complete mess that even in her sleep, she squirmed and thrashed like a madman. But Chaewon stayed by her side, comforting her in ways that she has never done for anybody else. When she sang her songs, it worked more effectively than the sedatives to keep her calm, so she recorded a song and had it played in the room whenever Hitomi showed any form of discomfort.

During nights, she remained seated by the bed, watching over Hitomi in her sleep. The girl had talked in her sleep, most of it seemingly from her past and it broke her just to even hear the crack in the girl's voice. She had held her hand since and promised herself that she would take care of her. When Yujin delivered the news of Hitomi's family's demise, it solidified her purpose to continue living.

She already knew she can't live for herself, so instead, she decided to continue living for others. The girl would have no one by her side so she thought that she should at least do that for her, and for everyone else who believed she could change. 

And when Hitomi said she's no longer giving up on life, Chaewon couldn't express her happiness any better. She feels like she's done a great job and has fulfilled an important mission, a redemption of her sins from five years ago. It was everything she could hope for after days and nights with nothing but Hitomi's uncertainties in life. The satisfaction from hearing Hitomi's honest thoughts was blissful.

However, there is still one thing left for her to do.

  
Once she was sure that Hitomi is fast asleep, she slips out of the room and sits on the benches in the hallway. After taking out her phone, she scrolls over her contacts list to find a name that she was once acquainted with. She can't help but chuckle at how fate is playing with all of them. She presses call and waits for the other line to be picked up.

It is still nine in the evening but she is hoping that the person hasn't gone to sleep yet. Or else she would never have the courage to call her again.

  
It had been eight rings already when her call is finally answered.

  
"Hello?"

  
"Chaeyeon."

  
"Chaewon? Is that you?"

  
"Yes." She takes a brief pause. "Is Sakura home?" 

  
"You're calling my number but you're looking for my wife. Don't you think that's rude?"

  
"I… I'm sorry. I just need to talk to her."

"Chae, I don't think now's the right time. She's busy doing something and I don't wa-"

"Unnie, please. It's really important." She cuts her off and the woman sighs. "Hold on for a sec." 

  
There is silence in the line as she waits for the other person to talk to her. She heard an indistinct conversation for a brief moment before another voice spoke on the phone. 

  
"Chaewon-ah, it's been years."

  
Chaewon could feel her voice would be trembling when she speaks so she takes a deep breath before telling her purpose of calling.

  
"Sakura, we found your sister."

**v(@'-'@)**

  
"You look nervous today." Hitomi calls to Chaewon who pauses from peeling an apple. 

"I'm not. You're just seeing things." Chaewon fakes a smile and continues what she was doing. But Hitomi reaches out to stop her hand and picks an irregular looking slice on the plate.

"Your slices don't lie." She grins and bites on the slice.

Chaewon sighs and drops the knife on the plate. "I've got friends coming over. They want to meet you." 

"E-Eh? M-Me? Why would they want to meet me?" She blurts out in disbelief, choking on the apple she was still chewing on. Chaewon immediately panics and moves to hand her a glass of water that she drinks in a flash. She mutters her thanks and Chaewon chuckles. “W-Why me?” She asks again and the girl leans forward.

  
"They want to meet the bravest girl I've found." Chaewon says as she wipes the side of her lip with a thumb. Hitomi freezes, specifically on the superlative of the word that she has hated to be associated with her for years. She despised it because of the people who had used it and she has never thought she'd be able to see it as a compliment, not until Chaewon said so.

  
"But I'm not brave…" She admits, hanging her head down. But Chaewon lifts it by holding on her chin.

  
"You are. It takes a lot of courage to stand back up from a slump and yet here you are, working hard on making yourself better." Hitomi chokes again, but this time, it's no longer because of the apple but rather the tears that poured. Chaewon cups her face with both hands and wipes them. "You know you are brave, Hitoma." She only nods and sniffles.

  
A knock on the door interrupts them.

  
"I think that's them." Chaewon leaves her for a moment to go to the door and she takes the time to make herself presentable in front of their visitors.

  
The door opens and a woman with mid-length hair walks in, carrying a basket full of assorted fruits. Hitomi watches as she exchanged greetings with Chaewon by the door before looking at her with a bright smile. 

  
_“Why does all her friends look like angels?”_ Hitomi asks herself as the guest walks over to her with light steps. Chaewon had gone out of the room for some reason but left the door ajar.

  
"Hello, Hitomi." The woman greets her with a smile. Hitomi reciprocates the same shyly. "H-Hello."

  
"I'm Chaeyeon, and this is for you." She was about to hand her the basket but eventually stops and moves to place it on the bedside table instead.

  
"Thank you…"

"You're welcome." Chaeyeon smiles and faces her again. "So, how are you?"

  
"I-I've been fine."

  
"That's good to hear. You look pretty by the way." Hitomi blushed at the sudden compliment and mutters another flustered thanks. "You know, I'm with someone who's been really looking forward to see you." 

  
She follows the woman's gaze towards the door. Chaewon stepped inside first and then another woman walks in hesitantly and their eyes meet. Their expressions mirrored each other as well as the way they both hurried to meet in the middle of their distance.

Hitomi hasn't seen her for years and she almost couldn't recognize her with how much her appearance changed. But with her wide, cat-like eyes, she is sure that the woman is her sister.

  
"S-Sakura-nee…" She sobs in her arms and the latter tightened her hold around her.

  
"You're alive, Hii. You're alive. Thank god you're alive."

Sakura is her eldest sister who she hasn't seen since the woman graduated from high school and decided to live in Korea on her own. Their parents were against it but Sakura was already used to being independent and rebellious, so she defied them, resulting to the loss of constant communication for almost ten years. She writes emails to her but never gets any response in return. She never hated her sister and instead continued to look up to her. Hitomi admired Sakura's independence and how she has a clear set of goals in life since they were in grade school. 

To say the least, Sakura was her complete opposite. Hitomi knows for herself that she was very dependent on her, and even on Nako. So when the rest of their family was gone, she felt lost. The first thing that came into mind after fleeing away from the crime scene with nothing but clothes and important documents that she stuffed hurriedly inside her backpack was to find Sakura. And the only clue she had was that her sister was studying in a university in Seoul. Without a single backup plan, she found herself lost and eventually ended up in the wrong hands of a stranger.

* * *

"Why didn't you ever communicate with us? You didn't even respond to my emails..."

Sakura sighs and holds her hand. "They cut me off from the family, Hii, that's why I couldn't contact you or Nako. They promised not to block my cards if I stay away. I had plans for the three of us that's why I couldn't risk giving you a reply. But I've read your emails. All of it."

All this time she thought Sakura was just isolating herself and it turns out it was all their parents' doing? Hitomi feels sorry for her sister.

"But Hii, I need to know why you ran away that day.."

She could notice the carefulness in Sakura's tone and she tries to answer it bravely. "I..." Her breathing suddenly hitched and she began to shake. Sakura immediately scoots closer to wrap her tighter in the embrace. "You don't have to answer that if you're not ready. Calm down, Hii. You're okay now. I'm here..."

"N-No... You have to know..." She clings on to Sakura's jacket and shakes her head, deciding against her fear of reminiscing what happened. "He gave me the gun he used to kill them and he..." She pauses to take a gulp. "...he wanted me to kill Nako myself. I used it...and shot him instead. But nee, I held the gun. And used it." She forces another lump down her throat as her eyes began to sting. "I m-murdered him."

"No. You didn't. You're not a murderer. You just had to do what was right or else he'd kill you too." She knows Sakura is right but she can't seem to convince herself to agree.

"Did you run away because you thought they'll put you in jail?" She nods and Sakura hugs her tighter. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that, Hii. I'm sorry." 

She hears the crack in her sisters voice and they both ended up in tears again.

**/(@'o'@)\**

  
Chaewon watches from the door window as the sisters hugged and talked for the first time in years. Tears have been spent and still continued to pour. She admits that she got teary-eyed at the reunion too and she is happy that they found each other.

  
“So you kept her from us for more than a month.” Chaeyeon, Sakura's wife, asks, handing her a can of coffee that she bought. She accepts it and mutters her thanks. "Why?"

  
"You wouldn't want Sakura to see her sister look so broken."

  
"You're right, but that doesn't mean you couldn't tell us any sooner."

  
"Why is it such a big deal? I took care of her, okay? I did nothing wrong."

  
"Chae, I didn't mean it that way. We appreciate what you're doing to help Hitomi, really. You can even ask Sakura herself. We're just worried about you."

  
Chaewon scoffs and moves to sit on the bench. Chaeyeon follows her but remains standing in front of her. "Why would you be worried about me? I mean, what's even there to worry about?"

"Minju said you're spending _too much_ on her." Chaeyeon replies and she avoids looking at her. "Necessities and clothes, you're maxing out everything almost every week.."

"You're making it sound like I'm making an investment on her."

"Isn't that what you're doing?"

She lifts her head and looks at the woman in the eye. "Maybe it _was_."

Chaeyeon's brow twitched at the tense. "What changed then?"

"Her happiness means a lot more to me than what I can gain from her." 

Suddenly, Chaeyeon moves to take sit beside her. "Chaewon-ah, are you for real?" The woman asks incredulously and Chaewon looks at her funny. "What?"

"I thought Minju was just making things up but you really do like her."

"Of course, I like her. What's there not to like about a person like her?"

She furrows her brows when Chaeyeon shakes her head and places a hand on her shoulder. "No. I mean you really, really, _really do_ like her. Not just as a good person but..." She doesn't say it but Chaewon understood well. "You know what I mean."

"What now? You think it's absurd that I _fell_ for a stranger who'd been in a coma for a month?" She asks, echoing what Minju had suspected of her too.

"No. I think it's absurd that _you_ fell for Hitomi." Chaeyeon says in a matter-of-fact voice and Chaewon frowns at her. "You never fall for someone."

"Yeah? Well, guess what? People change." She shrugs Chaeyeon's hand off her shoulder. "I know I've done terrible things in the past but I'm no longer the same Kim Chaewon that you guys knew from college. It took me quite some time but I'm aware now that I am way better than I was before. I could still fuck up but I am trying hard to avoid that. I don't want to make the same mistake again, especially on someone as genuine as Hitomi. Hitomi doesn't deserve the way I treated girls before and I will make sure to only treat her the best because that's what I've promised myself too."

The older woman suddenly pulls her into a hug and catches her off-guard. 

"W-Why are you suddenly hugging me?"

"Stop being pushy and let me hug you." She groans and tries to push the older woman away but the latter clung on to her like a panda. "Ugh. This is making me uncomfortable. Let me go unnie!"

"You know Sakura's taking her back to Japan, right?" Chaeyeon asks and she stops. That was also part of the reason why she didn't want to tell Sakura about Hitomi right away, but she wouldn't tell them that.

"I know." Chaeyeon finally lets her go and looks at her. She tries not to look at her back but eventually still does when the woman gave her the look. "What?"

"You better not be thinking of doing something stupid." Chaeyeon warns and she scoffs. "Why? Do you think following her to Japan stupid?"

"Chaewon, I'm telling you-"

"Chill. I still have a month left for the probation thing before they let me fly off to anywhere in the world."

"And what about Hitomi?" 

"We're not in a relationship. I can't just force her to stay with me."

Their conversation ended there when Dr. Kwon arrived and asked to talk to Chaeyeon privately. Chaewon already gave up on trying to listen in to what the doctor has to say about Hitomi's condition and chose to remain seated on the bench, savoring her free can of coffee. 

In her alone time, her mind wandered off to the possibilities after Hitomi will leave. She knows that their time together is only temporary and there's no guarantee that she'll be able to see the girl again. She sips on her coffee and allows the bitterness settle on her tongue like the bitterness of the thought of them being apart. She has already gotten used to being right next to the girl. Her days and nights have always been filled by moments with her. Her smiles and cute voice even rang inside her head during the times that she has to leave her for a while. And to think of their separation being permanent, she can't help but feel the longing already. 

"No." She slaps her own cheek. "You have no right feel that. She's not yours. You have to continue living your life on your own." She slaps her other cheek and nods to herself. "Yes. You have to stand for yourself. You don't need her. You don't need her." She drinks until the last drop of her coffee and leans back in her seat, clenching hard on the empty can as she continues to convince herself. 

"Chaewon, you don't... need... her..."

But at the back of her head, a small voice keeps on whispering. 

_"You need her."_

* * *

Minutes turned to an hour when Sakura and Chaeyeon finally came out of the room. Chaewon looks at them and stands up, "Leaving already?"

"We both have to go to work early tomorrow. We'll come visit again in the afternoon." Chaeyeon explains while Sakura remains silent beside her. Chaewon only nods, feeling cautious with the older woman's gaze on her.

"Jjae, can you leave us for a moment? I want to talk to her privately." Sakura says in a tone that brings makes Chaewon even more nervous. Chaeyeon on the other hand just chuckles and pulls her wife in a side hug and kisses her on the cheek. "Sure, no problem. I'll wait for you in the car." The woman turns to her and gives her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "See you tomorrow."

Chaewon was iced in her place and couldn't move a muscle until they were left alone and Sakura suggested they talk somewhere else than the hallways. She dragged her feet to follow the Japanese until they reached the hospital balcony where some people often go to for smoke breaks. 

"Let me get straight to the point. I don't like having my sister here." Sakura sternly says and Chaewon sucks in a sharp breath as if she got hit on her chest.

"I- I'm sorry. I really just want to help her. But K-Kkura, I don't mean any harm for your sister." Even with her breath shaking, Chaewon tries her best to explain her side. Especially when Sakura looked at her confused. "I know I'm not like the best person there is but I'm trying. And I'd like to claim that I am doing better since Hitomi came."

"What are you rambling about?" Sakura asks and Chaewon blinks.

"Huh?"

"I meant here in this hospital, Chae. I don't like it that Hitomi has to stay in a hospital for weeks." The Japanese sighs. "I really appreciate what you're doing for her, you know? Even though, to be honest, I never expected it would be someone like you who will find her. But still, thank you for everything you've done for Hitomi, Chaewon."

A blush crept on her cheeks at Sakura's gratitude. It's the first time someone other than Hitomi thanked for something, for someone. And she admits she likes the warm feeling. Sakura notices her expression and chuckles. "You really thought I'm gonna scold you for keeping her from me all this time?"

She nods. "I can't help it. You know me and I've never done something like this before. And besides, she's your sister. What was I supposed to expect?"

"A full load of my gratitude. I know you're far different from how you were years ago 'cause I've put my trust in Minju's observations not because she's your best friend, but because she's a fellow doctor. You've come a long way, Chaewon, and I'd really like it if you'll keep it up. By that, I mean take good care of my sister until she's fully healed and well."

Realization dawn on Chaewon like a rising sun and her eyes grew wide at that. "You mean..."

Sakura nods with a smile. "I'm entrusting her to you until then. I can't bring her back to Japan in her current state and I'd prefer that she'll be able to prepare herself for it too. We have a business to run, you know."

"S-She's staying with me then?"

"I admit I am a bit skeptical about this whole set-up but I can't do anything about it, especially when she's warmed up to you. So yes, she will stay with you. She likes you and she's really gotten used to your presence. In fact, she kept on looking for you earlier. I feel a bit jealous though. It's only been weeks since she's known you but you really grew in her." Suddenly, Sakura glared at her. "You didn't drug her, did you?"

Chaewon frantically raised her hands and shook them along with her head. "N-No! Of course not! I can't do that to her..."

The older woman kept on glaring at her for a few more seconds before withdrawing the look and laughed. Only then was Chaewon able to breathe and relax.

"I'm just kidding." Sakura says and looks at her seriously, but no longer threatening. "I trust you, Chaewon."

There goes that feeling again inside of her. 

"Thank you, Sakura unnie." 

"No." Sakura takes a step closer to her and takes her hand, sandwiching it with the other before looking at her straight in the eyes. "Thank you, Chae. Please take good care of my sister."

"I will."

"Oh, and please get her out of this place as soon as possible."

**\\(@ˆ-ˆ@)/**

"Hey, where have you been?" Hitomi asks Chaewon the moment she entered the room. It had been almost two hours since her sister left for the day and she was left alone in the room. Nurses had come in to check on her but there was no sign of the girl anywhere. She even asked them if they saw her but no one had a definite answer until now.

She notices the gloomy expression on her face as the girl sits on the chair beside her bed. "You okay? Do you have other friends coming over again?" She jokes but Chaewon doesn't even smile at her.

"Hitoma." Chaewon calls and she hums in response. The girl only stares at her for a lengthy while before moving to hold her hand. Hitomi looks down and chuckles, "what?"

"Are you okay with living with me?" 

The question made Hitomi raise her head a bit too fast and she ends up feeling dizzy. A hand clasped the side of her head as she sways, making Chaewon react in worry. "Are you okay? Does your head hurt?"

"Ah, I'm okay. I'm okay. Might have just shook my brain too much." She laughs but Chaewon still looks at her with worry and a frown on her face. She looks at the latter and reaches to pull a side of her lips into a lopsided smile. "Stop frowning, it's just motion sickness. And yes," she smiles wider. "I'm more than okay with living with you."

Her answer was enough to finally get rid of Chaewon's frown. "But I'm gonna have to warn you. It's not going to be easy living with someone like me."

Chaewon shakes her head, now with a smile on her face. "I can surely handle that. I've been through the same, remember?"

"Your word, not mine." She says and pulls Chaewon into a hug. The latter doesn't protest and wraps her arms around her too.

"Hey, you think we can be more..?" Chaewon trails off but she gets the message like it was asked to her completely.

She is no stranger to how the older girl looks at her, how she cares for her, and how she acts with her as she had also her fair share of relationships back in college. And Chaewon, though obviously holding back, is exerting no effort in masking her feelings. In just weeks of knowing her, Hitomi has harbored the same mutual feeling; but, likewise, she holds back for her own reasons.

"No." She answers truthfully and she can sense Chaewon's smile wearing off on her shoulder. "Not now. Not when I'm still like this." She adds and there is a movement on the girl's face muscles.

"I can wait." Chaewon says in a whisper, like she didn't want her to hear but said it still.

Hitomi smiles. Even at the moment, Chaewon is stopping herself from overstepping her boundaries like how she is always so careful with her. She can tease her about what she heard but doesn't do it and instead tightens her hold around the latter who's now sitting on the bed with her, her face buried on the crook of her neck. She does feel excited about the possibility of making it _official_ but she can't run from her situation. She appreciates what Chaewon has done for her, but until then, her main priority will always be fixing herself. 

"I'll do my best." She whispers back and Chaewon doesn't even pretend to not hear it.

"Me too."

  
  



End file.
